My Target Achievement; My Book - [WE99] Weekend-Engagement

Your target achievement

What are you aiming at right now; let's call it a major goal you're looking to achieve within the next five years. What is that major thing you want to tick off and what actions are you taking to bring it to reality? What are the obstacles you face, how are you working to overcome them and what will it mean to achieve your goal.

Hello everyone… I hope you are having a great Saturday, full of energy and not as hot as over here (wishing for the arctic right now).

I really liked this prompt, because it's something I've actually thought about a lot. I'm a writer, and I'm always writing poems, short stories, and I've even worked (personally) on some novels.

But to be honest with all of you, being a writer in Venezuela is something quite risky and hard to do.

Let's start with the following, within the next five years, my biggest goal is to be discovered by a publishing house, or by an agent who likes my work and allows me to publish my book. I have been writing this novel “Tempest” for over a year now. It is my most important project, I have been writing it every chance I get, and I have ideas. It all came from a little micro-story that I was about to publish.

This novel, which is about a lesbian couple. It came to my mind perhaps because I had never written anything related to the LGBTQ community. I thought it would be a great opportunity to explore a topic I knew a little about, and so I began to develop my characters for what later became a novel that is almost two parts now.

First I just wrote and wrote. I only had a couple of readers who gave me their support for this project to continue. That was my first step, to allow someone from the outside to read what I was doing. After I had a certain amount of chapters, I decided I had to edit and of course design a cover. I don't know anything about drawing or graphic design, but I have friends who are experts, and they helped me with the cover.

Cover designed by my friends Marcel Tovar and Jerson Lanza.

I remember a couple of months before I had the cover of the novel, I had seen on Facebook this call for writers of LGBTQ stories for a new reading App. I was very nervous, and had no idea whether to apply to get on the app, but then I took courage, sent in my details and my proposal. I was very surprised when they said I would get in and that they would enable writer mode on the App for me to start uploading my novel.

This was a big step. Another thing I had in mind was to publish it on Wattpad, another reading platform. This one, having more audience, gave me the opportunity to make myself known, but it wouldn't be easy. Wattpad is a huge platform, with thousands and thousands of writers ranging from amateur to professional. Wattpad also has its publishing house and has made many of its writers jump to fame. So I said, well let's give it a try. I started uploading the chapters of the novel also on this platform.

Among the obstacles I have encountered along the way, is to see that not always the LGBTQ community supports novels based on two girls, also that since it goes to a young audience, they expect the same clichés as always. However, I try to be constant with updating the story and I try to promote it through my Facebook page, although I feel it is not enough.

If Venezuela were a country that put effort into promoting reading, and also promoting sexual diversity in literature, I would have a little more readers. For now, I am trying to move forward with this project. I have already written about sixty chapters, and I can say that it is the novel to which I have put the most effort. It's my baby and I love it.

To be able to reach the goal of reaching a publishing house, to publish it on paper, would fill me with great satisfaction both emotionally and at work. Writing is a job, it is a passion, and it is something I would love to continue doing.